Page:The Kiss and its History.djvu/83

 a hunter who meets a young girl out in the forest. Struck by her beauty, he wants to kiss her:

but she begins to cry, and, moved by her tears, he releases her; but he has hardly got clear of the wood before she begins to laugh at him heartily, and in derision shouts after him: "When you've got hold of a quail you ought to pluck it, and when you've got hold of a girl you ought to embrace her":

I quote these verses, for they may possibly afford inexperienced young men some matter for reflection.

Besides, a woman's "No" has often a piquancy about it which lovers of a somewhat more refined class set great store by. Even Martial (v. 46) has expressed himself in favour of this in a little epigram which begins thus: